Increasing Employment Levels In Infrastructure Development ‎projects

By Author: Rifat Rustom & Tareq Assar
Total Articles: 1
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One facet of appropriate construction technology is the use of less
equipment and more labor through labor-based or labor intensive
construction (7). Labor based technology as described by the International
Labor organization (ILO) is "a technology that applies a labor/equipment
mix that gives priority to labor, supplementing it with appropriate
equipment where necessary for reasons of quality or cost" (2). While
producing or maintaining infrastructure to a specified standard in a costeffective
manner, people are employed under fair working conditions. It
is in this respect important to distinguish between an optimum and
efficient use of labor, as opposed to a maximum underutilization of
labor(4).
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An - Najah Univ. J. Res. (Science) Vol. 20, 2006
Proper utilization of intensive employment in construction projects
can result in a significant increase in labor employment generated per unit
of expenditure. Labor-intensive construction proejcts can be financially
competitive with conventional ...
... (equipment-based) construction and can
produce the same quality of product within the same time schedule (5,7).
From a development perspective, there are additional socio-economic
benefits to be gained such as the development of individual skills,
institutional capacities and a contribution to the alleviation of poverty (9).
Investment in infrastructure such as access roads, water, dams,
drains, irrigation, housing and schools accounts for as much as 50% to
70% of national public investment in most developing countries (3). In
addition to the impact of the infrastructure produced on economic growth
and on the generation of productive employment opportunities,
infrastructure also have direct social impact through creating access to
basic social services such as education and health, as well as - through
the building of productive facilities - to long-term employment in other
sectors such as agriculture or manufacture (3). A study by the Development
Academy of the Philippines (1998) showed that between 126,000 and
230,000 additional jobs could have been created in the various
infrastructure sectors, if labor-based methods had been adopted and more
widely used in the construction sector (3). The study also confirmed that,
for the type of infrastructure concerned, the quality and costs of the assets
would have been similar to that having been produced by methods
heavily involving equipment usage.
Characteristics of Infrastructure Development Projects with Higher
Labor Content
High-labor-content infrastructure development projects can be
described in terms of the following aspects, which differentiate them
from ordinary infrastructure development projects:
1. High labor content: the usual goal of high-labor content projects is to
maximize the use of labor through implementing infrastructure
projects.
Rifat Rustom, & Tareq Assar 153
An - Najah Univ. J. Res. (Science) Vol. 20, 2006
2. Labor-focused infrastructure design and technology: infrastructure
design for higher labor content infrastructure development projects
builds on the capabilities of the human workers. In-situ production
and construction material processing is encouraged, in an attempt to
redistribute the benefits of off-site production and construction
material processing to on-site workers.
3. Inherent non-sustainability: sustainability in this context refers to the
provision of continued employment opportunities. Higher labor
content infrastructure development projects are not sustainable on
that scale, at least in the Palestinian context (11).
4. Infrastructure development projects as a tool to job creation: The
main objective of higher labor content infrastructure development
projects is to create direct jobs. The development of these
infrastructure projects is however considered as a byproduct of the
process of creating jobs.

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